Yvonne Lorkin: Cremant as good as Champange

Chile produces some excellent sauvignon blanc but steer clear of the cleanskins.

We are incredibly blessed in this country to have a profusion of pretty sensational, locally produced sparkling wines from which to pick and choose.

Our premium, and even our budget-priced bubbles - take a bow, Lindauer - have hit the high notes , time and time again at award shows, even when placed against the finest of French fizz.

There's no way that I can afford Champagne on any sort of regular basis, but my main vice - apart from Moro bars and glossy magazines full of impossibly beautiful people - is sparkling wine.

There's a reason my KiwiSaver account always looks a tad flaccid, and that's because any spare coin seems to osmose itself into bottles of the stuff.

I have many local favourites, but for the times I want to stretch my palate across the oceans but not my budget, I reach for a Cremant de Bourgogne.

That is the name and appellation for the white and rose sparkling wines from Burgundy (as opposed to the Champagnes from the Champagne region), and they're made predominantly from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes in the traditional Champagne method, or methode traditionelle.

The Cremants I've tried over the past couple of years have been rather fantastic, every bit as good as the Champagnes, and the appellation Cremant now accounts for more than 13 million bottles of wine every vintage.

I was also fortunate enough to taste a great Spanish Cava recently, and if your only experience with Cava was the black bottles of Freixenet from the supermarket then it would be a good idea to give the Pares Balta a go.

Imported by distributors Dhall and Nash, it's a superb value-for-money example of how the Spaniards make sparkling wine - and it's organic to boot.

Thanks to our strong dollar there's never been a better time to get among those interesting international wines.

Even better news is that New Zealanders can get their hands on some excellent examples by just tapping away on Google, www.wine-searcher.com, or by visiting the sites of the two distributors listed below.

Please, whatever you do, steer clear of the $7.99 bottles of cleanskin sauvignon blanc from Chile being sold at Countdown.

"Cleanskin" simply means wines that usually just have a single plain label on the back of the bottle, with the legally required details of the wine inside.

Don't get me wrong, Chile produces some sensational wines and it can produce some absolutely gorgeous sauvignon blanc, but the one I bought out of curiosity's sake last week was horrible, watery muck.

Sauvignon blanc?

Sauvignon bland more like. Be warned.

Gustav Lorentz Cremant D'Alsace Brut Rose NV $35 This really impressed me with its delicate aromas of red berries and biscuit notes followed by an attractive, lemony, shortcake character. Really lovely. www.blendwinestore.co.nz

Andre Delorme Cremant de Bourgogne Brut NV $39 Very creamy, almost cashew-like on the nose and has a clean, biscuit, nutty flavour and some really finely tuned acidity that makes a stunning sip. www.macvine.co.nz

Pares Balta Organic Brut Cava $20 This Spanish sparkler is chalky and dry, with a creamy, nutty character and lovely complexity that works a treat with crayfish, oysters and all manner of tasty seafood. www.dnfinewine.com

Vavoom from Vale Lavina Wines, an 4.5ha estate in the McLaren Vale sub-region of Blewitt Springs in south Australia. Most of the fruit used in their premium wines is grown 100 per cent biodynamically. Lavina Wines chief executive Sam Daw read about how much I loved cabernet franc and sent one of his own for me to try.

"I produce about four to five tonnes a vintage from 15- and 30-year-old vines," he said. "It's all handpicked and run over a Bordeaux-designed Vaucher Beguet Mistral sorting table which removes anything messy and we end up with a pure, whole-berry ferment. The fruit is cold-soaked, fermented "wild" and sits for about eight weeks before being gently pressed to two- and three-year-old 500-litre oak puncheons."

Early on in this process, when the berries are being fermented, he drains the free-run juice, physically foot-stomps the berries, then returns the free-run juice to the skins. "It's intensive yet really gentle, but well worth the effort," he says.

Having tasted his wine, and their flagship Grand Royal Shiraz - which is made in a very similar way - I can categorically state that he's on to a beautiful thing.

Lavina Elicere Mclaren Vale Cabernet Franc 2012 $35 "Elicere" means "to lure, entice or draw forth" and that's exactly what this wine does. Once bitten, you can't shake it. I love the sweet, pungent florals, dried herbs and ripe, luscious plum and cranberry notes. It is succulent and chock-full of berries. So fresh and tangy, yet it has depth and density, this is purely lovely cabernet franc. Available via The Mill Liquorsave or www.vineonline.co.nz

Lavina Grand Royale Mclaren Vale Shiraz 2010 $100 Served in an impenetrably dark, heavyweight bottle to protect its precious cargo from the detrimental effects of light, this wine looks so sexy as it pours into the glass, inky blood-black and oozing sweet rose, dark cocoa and ripe, robustly flavoured berries. I love the texture, warmth, emery-fine tannins and "chew factor" in this wine. Expertly crafted from five vineyards, three of which are organic and showing velvety, plush, silky-soft spices - it's a definite new favourite. Available via The Mill Liquorsave or www.vineonline.co.nz